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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28270863">When the battle is over (What becomes of us warriors ?)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefrenchmistake/pseuds/thefrenchmistake'>thefrenchmistake</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fairy Tail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, No Angst, Post-Canon, so soft</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:29:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,392</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28270863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefrenchmistake/pseuds/thefrenchmistake</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the battle against Zeref, a new life stretches on the horizon : some talks and closures are required.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser, Jellal Fernandes/Erza Scarlet, Laxus Dreyar/Mirajane Strauss, Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia, Yukino Aguria/Rogue Cheney/Sting Eucliffe/Minerva Orland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>When the battle is over (What becomes of us warriors ?)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ok I watched the ending again, and I am so in love with so many couples from this show, so I selected the few ones of which we really needed a kiss on screen.... And a few of my whims. <br/>I really hope you enjoy !</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s already dark when Juvia decides to go home -well, the place she calls home for lack of a better word, as the little house in the mountains lingers stubbornly in her mind- and the last thing she expects is for Gray to catch up with her a few minutes after she leaves the guildhall.</p><p>He appears at her side like he has always been there, and Juvia hides her smile in the collar of her coat, letting her hair fall before her face. Resisting looking at him is something she is not used to, but she manages nonetheless.</p><p>“Good evening, Gray-Sama,” she greets as acknowledgment.</p><p>She hears him clear his throat, but doesn’t stop walking. His steps are far wider than hers anyway, if he wished to pass before her or walk quicker he would have done it.</p><p>Instead, his hand curls around her elbow, bringing her to a halt. </p><p>“Juvia…” he starts, but trails off, words failing him like she never will. Juvia turns around and finally faces him.</p><p>Snow is scattered in his hair, softly gleaming under the streetlamp’s light, eyes blazing like two intricate snowflakes she takes apart and rebuilds over and over again in her mind at night, laying in her bed.</p><p>The aversion she has for Gray’s pain and recurrent hesitation (at being loved, at allowing himself something more) spurs her to talk before he can get lost in his own head, and she can get lost in the way snow falls around them and catches in his eyelashes.</p><p>“Are you alright ?”</p><p>“Wh… Yes,” he shakes his head, making snowflakes melt with the slight blush lurking on his cheeks. “Yes, I’m fine. I’m… Fine.”</p><p>Silence falls upon them, giving ethereal beauty to the quiet snowfall around them. It’s so different from the rain.</p><p>“Did you want to talk to Juvia ?” She asks, batting her eyes patiently when he looks at her far too long.</p><p>“Yes, I… I wanted to talk about…”</p><p>Gray huffs, but it doesn’t matter, because Juvia knows. It’s in his fidgeting, in the determination drawing his features, in his fingers making ice twirl in the air and reshape into an umbrella. It’s in the beating of her heart, echoing his. Still, he keeps talking.</p><p>“You shouldn’t have done that.”</p><p>“Gray-Sama died once for Juvia before. She didn’t want to watch it happen again.”</p><p>His eyes widen, and oh, he is so expressive, wears his heart on a sleeve and his emotions on his face like no one she has ever known. That is what Juvia loves about him, his inability to lie, to hide what he thinks and what he wants.</p><p>Now, she watches patiently as he opens his mouth, closes it, surprise and realization downing on him in a fascinating spectacle. Then he studies her like for the first time, implications of what it means, and why she kept it a secret, and how she didn’t push him anyway, and followed him to the ends of the Earth.</p><p>“You… You’ve known all this time ?”</p><p>Juvia looks to the side, wets her upper lip. She does not like to keep things from him.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“You never said anything.”</p><p>“Gray-Sama didn’t want Juvia to.”</p><p>His eyes are so hot on her face, blazing, and she loves the dichotomy of it, this contrast between his powers and the pure warmth of his heart and body.</p><p>“What you did, back there,” he whispers and moves closer until she has to look up to meet his eye. “I didn’t want you to do that.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“Then why did you ?”</p><p>Pain throbs in her lower stomach, right where she tore a sword through her body, and Juvia keeps her gaze on his. He is strangely intent, serious in a way she hasn’t seen since that night before battle, when he told her he’d give her an answer.</p><p>She thinks she can see the answer now, written in his every feature and in the way his hand reaches for hers, and she wishes to watch it for the rest of her life.</p><p>“Juvia couldn’t bear to hurt you. You know that. Why did you ?” It’s her turn to ask, because she has told him she loves him so many times he must know her reasons, yet she still doesn’t know his.</p><p>Gray smiles.</p><p>“Couldn’t live without you, I guess.”</p><p>And Juvia smiles, too. Gray-Sama steps closer, closer, until his fingers tilt her chin up, and he’s kissing her. It is not the first time they’ve kissed, but it is the first time it has meant this much, the first time she can feel his smile under her lips and is not afraid of losing him right away.</p><p>When he draws back, they share a breath, the cold of the night warming them to their toes. Juvia likes how this night makes her feel, and she especially likes how soft Gray-Sama looks and feels in the streetlight as he lowers his hand to her jaw and studies her face.</p><p>“Look, Juvia,” he starts, and it’s not as hesitant as she expected but she shouldn’t be surprised. “I’m not.... good with words, and.... trying to say what I mean. But I want you to know that there’s no one else I would have wanted by my side then, and no one else I want by my side in the future. For... everything.”</p><p>Juvia nods, eyes burning with water she wishes to flick away, but she prefers clutching his coat in her hands to pull him closer to her. She still feels the slight pinch where her blood flowed out of her, and still feels the drumming of it in Gray’s body.</p><p>His hand is on her hip, and his thumb presses down on the tissue of her dress, the place where they both know her scar is. She hopes that some day, he can come to see it as a symbol of her love for him, and not of his failure to protect her. So she puts her own hand on his stomach, on his scar, presses her thumb into it just so, and his eyes snap back to hers.</p><p>“You know I love you Gray-Sama.”</p><p>He smiles softly, one of those almost intimate smiles he rarely shows to anyone, and Juvia melts.</p><p>“I know.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>**</p><p> </p><p>“I’m proud of you, you know ?”</p><p>Lucy turns her head from where she’s propped on pillows in her warm, comfortable-looking bed to stare at him, brows furrowed. The fight has drained her from all energy, and she told him she can feel her spirits calling it a night and doing whatever it is they do in the Spirit World to rest.</p><p>Still, her exhaustion is hardly at fault for her apparent confusion at Natsu’s words, blurt out of nowhere.</p><p>He knows he isn’t really the talking kind, and is reminded of it when she looks at him like what he’s saying doesn’t make sense. He also knows she deserves to hear this, to take pride in her strength and quick-thinking.</p><p>“For what ?”</p><p>“For being awesome and kicking Acnologia’s ass.”</p><p>The chuckle she lets out is all affection and satisfaction, and Natsu wants to taste it so bad he almost throws caution to the wind and does it.</p><p>Maybe later. For now, he needs to say some things he should have said a long time ago, but never found it in himself to put into words.</p><p>“Well, that was a team effort. But the sentiment is appreciated,” she smiles.</p><p>Natsu grins at her from where he’s leaning on the facing wall, hoping he appears nonchalant and not worn by nerves like he feels. Instead of rushing towards her and jumping on her bed like he wants to, Natsu keeps his movements restrained and neat so she can follow every one of them.</p><p>A short nod of her head is all the answer he gets when he gestures to the bed, silently asking permission. In a rare display of patience, Natsu ignores her curious expression, sets his attraction to her pale skin aside, sets aside everything that isn’t Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, in order to lay beside her. She looks down at him, but he won’t meet her gaze and he won’t answer her unspoken question.</p><p>He needs to ask one first. Now, in the quiet of her room, with the contrast between the snow falling outside and the gleam of her hair imprinted in his retina, he can’t quite swallow the words back down; he doesn’t want to.</p><p>“Did you forgive me ? For leaving ?” He asks quietly, unable to meet her eye. Shame isn’t something he is familiar with, but it seems tangled up in every moment of his absent year.</p><p>He left her behind. He left her alone.</p><p>Worse than that, far worse, he made her think she wasn’t enough.</p><p>When she talks, it’s not really an answer, and despite the softness of her voice, his heart drops.</p><p>“I wasn’t mad, you know. I was just… lonely. Sad. I thought you left me behind because you thought I couldn’t keep up.”</p><p>Outraged -and painfully saddened- by her guess, he opens his mouth, but Lucy holds up a hand to stop him. He obeys.</p><p>He does that far more since this year away, since he missed her like a limb, since he thought about every fucking time the sun rose with her golden hair and set in the glowing blue of her eyes.</p><p>“I know now it wasn’t that for you. But I couldn’t know then. It took me a while to accept that you were gone, and even longer to realize it wasn’t my fault. So I… I guess hat yeah, I forgave you. Hell,” she chuckles, and Natsu is floored to notice the slight blush on her cheeks, “I probably forgave you the moment you returned.”</p><p>“Why ?” It’s breathless, disbelieving of both her words and the blush, unable to lie, that spreads from her cheeks to her neck in a fascinating revelation.</p><p>“Because all I wished for, that year, was for you to come back. And when you did, it felt like my prayers were finally heard. What was there to forgive after that ?”</p><p>“I shouldn’t have left you in the first place. And don’t say it’s ok,” he states harshly, looking back at the ceiling, “because it’s not. It’s a mistake I intend to pay for the rest of my life.”</p><p>“I don’t want you to pay for it the rest of your life.”</p><p>“I will anyway. I will tell you every single day that you’re enough, if you need to hear it. Enough to come back, from that travel or that damn demon realm.”</p><p>The spreading of her blush and the gleam of her eyes is more precious than anything else, and Natsu thinks he would’ve gone made if she hadn’t forgiven him, or worse, if he couldn’t have seen it again.</p><p>He saw her die once before, thought Dimaria killed her as well, and he would never, ever forget that. God, what a nightmare it was. Talk about a trigger event.</p><p>If there is one thing worth turning into a demon for, it’s Lucy.</p><p>“Natsu,” she says under her breath in that tone of hers, the one she uses when she wants to pour her heart out or wants him to let her close. He knows that voice, loves it to death. It’s the voice he tried desperately to earn when he came back to Magnolia, when she kept her eyes down and didn’t speak too loud and he didn’t know why.</p><p>He was so blind for so long, but now all he can see is the gentle shift of her face as she leans down in his space, the strands like sunshine that escape her ponytail, the glow to her eyes that speak of her Celestial Spirit Magic. And he’s accustomed to flames, knows the shape of them, their warmth, their color, but when Lucy comes closer until her chest touches his and her hand lays gently on his jaw, he burns with a new kind of heat. She smiles, and it’s blinding so close but he refuses to shut his eyes until the moment her lips cover his.</p><p>It’s softer than he thought it would be, all those times he imagined it. It’s not rash, it’s not earned in the midst of battle or him yielding to the desire that has been building since they met. It’s an acceptance, quiet, whispering lest it blows out the flame.</p><p>His hand comes to the back of her head, holding her close, and when her teeth tease his lower lip, it’s happily that he opens his mouth and welcomes her in, body and soul.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>Saber Tooth has changed, Yukino thinks as she watches the mess that has become the hall in just a few minutes. Corpses of bottles litter the ground, a fight has broken out, pieces of furniture are scattered all around, and although they are not yet at Fairy Tail level, they are getting closer.</p><p>She’s glad for it.</p><p>Standing on the edge of the fight, Sting looks upon the damages, a smirk on his face but a dangerous glint to his eyes, and Yukino feels a little thrill at the base of her spine.</p><p>Sting rarely loses his temper, but when he does, God. Yukino is reminded she’s glad he’s on her side.</p><p>And that, he swore to her. That he’d be on her side no matter what. It’s one of the few things she replays again and again in her mind when she needs reassurance about her life, about the people in it that, until recently, had a tendency to vanish.</p><p>“Are you alright ?” Rogue asks, appearing as silent as a shadow on her right. Unbothered, Yukino turns a smile towards him.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>“Your sister left ?”</p><p>Yukino nods. She never even told Rogue that Sorano -Angel, as she calls herself now- is her sister, but it shouldn’t surprise her that he knows. She is always amazed at how attentive Rogue is, be it in every day life or in combat. It makes it all the better when he loses focus in the bedroom.</p><p>“But she’ll be back. Now that we’ve found each other, she’ll be back.”</p><p>“If she doesn’t,” Sting exclaims, coming on her left and swinging an arm around her neck, “I’ll kick her ass.”</p><p>Yukino has learned to believe the dragon slayer’s promises, especially when it comes to defending his family -especially when it comes to them four.</p><p>They are an odd group, these four : two dragon slayers contrasting as well as completing each other, one born of darkness, one born from light, but both burdened by loss and mistrust; a celestial mage, broken at the edges of her powers and her mind, but who still manages to trust them with her entire heart; a fallen princess, cherished by the three other pieces of their strange puzzle like her father never could.</p><p>Minerva presses a kiss to her shoulder, all the while ruffling Sting’s hair despite this last’s grumbles.</p><p>“So what do we do now ?”</p><p>Her question is logical, and would spur doubt in Yukino’s mind were it uttered by anyone else.</p><p>But it’s Minerva, it’s their Princess’ husky, stable voice, and Rogue’s presence is on her right and Sting’s warm arm is still wrapped around her shoulders, so there’s really nothing to be worried about.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>****</p><p> </p><p>He seeks her out for once, which speaks volumes about how much he’s grown.</p><p>“How is Master ?” She asks as soon as she feels him approach. Laxus stops right at her side, broad hand brushing hers, and makes a sound between a groan and a huff, which is his usual method of communication.</p><p>“Grandpa is Grandpa, already pissing off Porlyusica.”</p><p>There is silence for a while. Their voices seem to give way to the sound of the tide, to the waves gently rolling on the sand. Mirajane loves Fiore, loves the different landscapes and the way she can take a walk down the beach and hike the mountains an hour later.</p><p>There’s no need for words in a setting like this; it is enough to just listen. Besides, Laxus came to her; if he wants to say something, she’ll give him the time he needs.</p><p>Eventually, when her eyes start to burn from the sunset, he sighs deeply and asks :</p><p>“What are you gonna do now ?”</p><p>Mira bites back a smile, closes her eyes. She can feel everything still, the amount of magic radiating from his body, the electricity crackling under his skin, not quite at rest even after the battle is won.</p><p>“Is that your way of asking for my resignation, Master ?”</p><p>“Fuck no,” he snorts. “And don’t ever call me that again.”</p><p>“Think it suits you.”</p><p>“We’re the same age, you make me feel like I’m a hundred years old.”</p><p>She makes a non committal sound, still not opening her eyes. It’s better that way, less uncomfortable for him, and she can hear more in his voice than what he’d display on his face.</p><p>“I meant at the guild.”</p><p>“I guess I’ll go back to being a barmaid.”</p><p>“Fuck that,” he says so suddenly she has to look at him. The golden sun is reflecting in his hair like he’s soaking up all its light, and the scar on his face seems to glow.</p><p>“You’re way more than a barmaid and everyone knows it. Don’t you want a promotion or something ?”</p><p>“Well, I suppose it would be nice,” she muses. “But I can’t let Kinana handle the bar alone.”</p><p>“Jesus, Mira,” he curses, but it’s said with a roll of his eyes so Mirajane doesn’t pay attention to the tone, “think about yourself for once, uh ? What do <em>you</em> wanna do ?”</p><p>“Right now ? I wanna take you out to dinner.”</p><p>He turns his head around so fast she’s concerned for his neck, but not concerned enough to erase her smile. And then Laxus bursts out into laughter, and it’s so beautiful, the kind of laugh that would’ve meant everything in the aftermath of Lisanna’s death, the kind that would have made her laugh along through the endless pain.</p><p>She really likes him happy.</p><p>So she turns her whole body to face him, her hands behind her back, and his eyes look down on her. Mira tilts her head to the side, still smiling.</p><p>“Laxus, would you wanna go to dinner with me ?”</p><p>He laughs again, short and honest. His eyes burn on her, but it’s far from being painful.</p><p>“Yeah. I could be convinced.”</p><p> </p><p>Mirajane has always liked her apartment, how the glass doors let the moonlight in when she came home late from the guild, how the open space gives a sense of freedom to the room.</p><p>She likes it even better now, with Laxus crossing the room like he belongs there, head turning left and right to take the sight in just a few seconds before his focus is back on her. Ignoring his gaze for the time being, Mira puts her keys down on the counter, hesitates to turn the light on but ultimately decides against it. She likes how it renders the moment more intimate, and likes how half of Laxus’ features are hidden in the shadow.</p><p>“Do you plan on ordering in ?” He asks, stepping closer, and she hums.</p><p>“No, silly. I’ll cook something up. But I need to shower first.”</p><p>He makes a small sound of agreement, following her when she goes to the bathroom. It’s pretty ridiculous, she notices while turning the light on, how Laxus takes the whole space in the doorway. She watches his small smile in the mirror, watches how he leans his shoulder on the doorframe and crosses his arms.</p><p>“That your idea of taking me out ?”</p><p>“We can go out later. We have all the time in the world.”</p><p>This statement has never been so true. It has never spurred her to turn around either, brought him forward until he’s standing right before her. His face leans down to hers, Mira’s hands on his chest, and only when they share the same breath do they stop.</p><p>They wait.</p><p>For a sound, for an interruption, for something to keep them from getting what they want. </p><p>When nothing comes, her mouth moves up to his.</p><p>It’s so silent in her bathroom, she kind of wants to drown in the peacefulness of the moment, in the solace that comes with having Laxus kiss her intently, like he has thought about doing this for a while but is just enjoying the present instant.</p><p>She knows she is.</p><p>His hands lay on her waist and hold her up just enough so he can sit her on the sink.</p><p>They trade kisses slowly, because she is right ; they have all the time they need, and they would be content with just kissing for a while, learning the tide of their tongues together, the shape their lips make pressed against the other’s.</p><p>Still, Mirajane craves contact, if not sex yet, and so she tugs on his shirt, urging him to take it off. He does, and then she is witnessing the violence of this lifestyle, watching in every scar the trials he had to endure to be here today. She doesn’t even notice they’ve stopped kissing until she presses her lips to his collarbone, earning a shaky exhale from him.</p><p>She leans back on the sink.</p><p>They stay silent for a while, just taking each other in, but then Mirajane wants to share with him what happened, wants to give a sliver of explanation as to why this, why now.</p><p>“I almost died today,” she states, looking thoughtfully at the wall. “I mean,” she chuckles, “we all did, but this one.... this one was a really close call.”</p><p>Her fingers absent-mindedly brush the place where a cross is carved into her skin, pulsating under her touch like it has a life of its own.</p><p>“What happened ?” He asks, so quiet she almost doesn’t hear him despite their proximity.</p><p>“A spell to the heart. Went right through.”</p><p>“What ?”</p><p>“Brandish reduced the wound, so I can count myself lucky.”</p><p>“Mira,” he says in a breath, like it escaped him. His hand moves from hers to her wrist, then up her arm. When he caresses her shoulder, she can’t help but press her cheek against his palm. His thumb grazes her cheekbone back and forth and Mira tucks her feet behind his calves, pulls just a bit so he is forced to come closer. Not that he puts up much of a fight anyway, gladly filling all the space left between them.</p><p>More delicately than she expected, his fingers brush the hair out of her face. Electricity was always his power, but this feels different. Her demons quiet, and his lightning tampers down to an electrical flow, steady and reassuring, and she can see it all in his eyes as he looks, and looks, and looks at her like she’s all he’ll ever see.</p><p>Deliberately slow, she lets her fingers drop to his lips.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>After Lisanna’s death, Laxus had asked Mirajane “<em>why are you still here ?</em>”. She had looked up at him, uncomprehending. “<em>This is the only home I’ve ever known</em>” she had eventually said, almost curiously. That’s when Laxus understood that they were pretty similar in ways he preferred to ignore, but he’s not that coward anymore.</p><p>He never knew the meaning of family until his Grandfather threw it in his face, but Laxus thinks that he could have seen it in her then, if he had looked close enough. He didn’t care to, at the time.</p><p>But now, now all he can see is how similar they are, and how she is far stronger than he is. She fought so hard, so much for her family, for her siblings whom she has taken care of her entire life.</p><p>She almost died for them today.</p><p>She almost <em>died</em>.</p><p>“Mira,” he catches her attention, heart breaking at the edges when he sees her eyes are a bit glossed over. “Leave fear to the fight.”</p><p>“I’m not afraid.”</p><p>Maybe she’s lying, maybe she’s not. In any case, Laxus leans down to kiss her again. Wrapped in her this way, wholly hers, Laxus is tempted to suffocate in hope of forgetting all the dangers that still lurk in certain shadows.</p><p>He touches the cross lightly, grazes it with one finger, lest it grows back to its normal size, and she does the same with the scar on his eye, following the patterns delicately like lines in a painting, and not a mark imposed on him by the violence of his father.</p><p>It’s warm and soft and intimate, all the things Laxus didn’t think he could be then but finds out he wants to be now.</p><p>(He held her once, and she slapped him and called him a jerk but clung to him like it would make her forget the absence of her sister for a minute. He brought a bouquet of flowers on Lisanna’s tomb when Mira had to go on a mission. They never mentioned it.)</p><p>And maybe she visited him after the Grand Magic Games, maybe she helped him with his wrappings after he almost died, maybe he actually sought her out when <em>her</em> brother almost died. There were a lot of moments like these, stolen in-betweens in a larger story, moments that didn’t seem to matter at the time but do now, tremendously. Now that they have the time, a life ahead of them. Now that Laxus is in a good place and Mira isn’t afraid of losing her siblings on a daily basis.</p><p>In this moment, between the snowy silk of her hair and the blue of her eyes, between the warmth of the bathroom and the intimacy of the moment, Laxus wants her to believe he’s gonna stay.</p><p>For real.</p><p>The want to live life at its fullest is a recent one, met between Gramp’s crude laughter, Freed’s nagging, Ever’s jabs, Bickslow’s ridiculous infatuation for Lisanna, Mira’s hair and smile and kindness and fierceness.</p><p>Now that he’s here, staring at her as she gazes back, ever patient, Laxus believes finding something stable and good might be the only way to live like he was intended to.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>****</p><p> </p><p>Her plea turns into a silent scream, and the transformation is mesmerizing. As is the way her hair is spread on the pillow, strands matted to her hair and neck and collarbone where a purple mark draws him in. Jellal leans down again, presses his lips against Erza’s throat as his hips drive into hers.</p><p>Despite the sounds they make, it is silent in the small apartment, this small home she has built from scratch and in which he wouldn’t mind remaining for the rest of his life.</p><p>Erza murmurs something in his ear, something breaking at the end in ecstasy, and Jellal abandons her throat to lean his elbows on either side of her head and watch, hips thrusting harder, red head thrown back in pleasure.</p><p>Scarlet, red, red, red. It haunts his dreams, and red is all he can see, all he can hope for. It’s such a different red from Zeref’s, soothing and undulating like an ocean of crimson, peaceful waters hiding a storm. Her guild symbol is blue, and he kisses it again and again, tasting every time the whisper of found-family, courage and loyalty that define this woman to her very core.</p><p>He drowns in her, gasps for breath against her neck and relishes in the marks her nails leave on his sides. She is intense, smoldering but never furious, never driven by rage like he once was or a thirst for power he wishes he could forget.</p><p>As she lets out a moan -longer, huskier, the one she allows to escape when she’s tipping over the edge- Jellal thinks he could get used to the kind of power that comes from bringing her to this state, from having her smile at him and kiss him easily.</p><p>It is effortless to get lost in the moment, lost in her scent and the way he can’t hold back anymore. Even afterwards, it’s too easy to get lost in her bed, her arms, the tilt of her head so she can face him.</p><p>They were never innocent, not really, but Jellal thinks he can see the remains of it in the tilt of her lip when she bares her teeth in a bright smile.</p><p>It is a grand thing, her happiness, addictive and soothing at the same time, warmth in the shivering cold of the roads. Forgotten innocence brings them together in some ways, pain in others, but their loyalty to each other, the fury of their bond, that’s what managed to make them meet all over again.</p><p>The finger that comes up to follow his red mark, from forehead to cheek, is far too gentle for such a shameful tattoo.</p><p>“Now that you’re pardoned, you have no reason to stay on the road.”</p><p>Those words should mend everything, but not really. Those are not the words he’s been craving for years. This is not his salvation, not yet.</p><p>“Will you stay ?” She adds.</p><p>“With you ?”</p><p>She laughs lightly like she rarely does, and it illuminates her face more than the moonlight ever could. All air leaves his lungs.</p><p>“You better,” she smiles at him before waving a hand around. “I meant in Magnolia.”</p><p>Jellal is a damn coward, is the one fleeing, always fleeing and never halting his course despite the many encounters on his path. He was always the one to leave her behind, and he doesn’t want to do it again, no matter the fear rendering his body weak, no matter the self-hatred festering deep in his rotten core, growing the sentiment of being unworthy born from abandonment, from the world’s most cruel places.</p><p>He knows those places by heart, has ruled their dark corners for years, and although he is not ready to forget them he is ready to share this burden with her, who knows so much about pain.</p><p>Scarlet hair, blue ink, it spills on his skin and all the way to his heart like it can fill the cracks, and he is tempted to believe it can.</p><p>“I am sorry,” he whispers to her and it is a testimony of how intimately she knows him that she doesn’t think he is speaking about leaving. No, she knows the words have been waiting for a while, taking root until he would be able to utter them out loud between her lips and her love.</p><p>So Erza presses her fingers on his neck and looks him in the eye, looks and looks until the sky could be orange with the rising sun and the leaves turned brown with a new season.</p><p>Eventually, she murmurs like a secret meant for him only :</p><p>“You’re forgiven.”</p><p>On her tongue, Jellal tastes the inesperate but always dreamt words. This is salvation, not the pardon of the king or the acceptance of his comrades, salvation is the pressure of her fingertips on his cheeks, the repetition of her forgiveness uttered in his mouth.</p><p>Salvation is his breathing her in deeply, until he’s sure her presence is there, lines blurred between their bodies and souls. Salvation is :</p><p>“I would love to stay, if you’ll have me.”</p><p>The admission is heavy, a weight he has never underestimated the importance of, and could never faced with her smile and her eyes staring up at him like he s the greatest gift in the world.</p><p>She huffs a short laugh, like she cannot help it.</p><p>There are very few things Erza cannot help, but Jellal believes that the way she feels- has always felt- about him is one of those.</p><p>He hates himself just enough for it, all the pain he brought her, but right this instant there’s no pain. In her small apartment where swords belong, tucked next to endless cake recipes, where she paints her nails purple while humming to whatever song is on the radio, where she hides her smile in her pillows, there’s no ounce of pain.</p><p>There is just their two bodies intertwined in the sheets, their fingers trailing tattoos and battle scars, and their lips whispering in the secret of a breath promises they are now allowed to keep.</p><p>Jellal finds solace.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for reading, tell me which of these couples is your favorite, I might write a bit more on Fairy Tail. <br/>I hope you liked it, let me know in reviews what could be better and what you liked !</p></blockquote></div></div>
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